In the current era of drunken transfer spending this summer’s transfer market presented an unusual twist. We somehow find ourselves starved of material for this year’s edition of the Poo Poo list.

Contrasting to last year’s list it begs the question of why such frugality? Well, frankly it could just be a matter of the years of spending (and bloated wage bills) catching up to many teams.

Also, at some point in any market, insane inflation will reach a point at which the demand will dry up and balance will swing back towards the buyer . It appears that time has come now with many large clubs refusing to negotitate deals past initial enquiries – most notably Barcelona(Willian) and Manchester United (Toby Alderwield).

Nevertheless we push on and identify what we believe to be the ill advised transfers of the summer.

FRED TO MANCHESTER UNITED-£53.1M

This one is here solely due to the apparent Mr. Scrooge attitude taken by Ed Woodward this summer.

The former Shaktar Donesk playmaker was acquired to be a foil to talisman Paul Pogba who was deemed to be underperforming his transfer fee. The player is a talent no doubt as Pep Guardiola’s interest would confirm so not our issue at all. Was he needed that badly and at that fee though? Was this a case of pep jealousy at play?

As previously mentioned Mourinho spent the better part of a year chasing Toby Alderwield without success with the transfer fee given as the reason. Mourinho still openly laments not knowing his best center back pairing. Accordingly each one has been benched in this young season as proof the position is a major area of concern.

So why was so much spent on a player to “add to their midfield group” to quote Mourinho? Why extend Fellaini? Why not give a chance to young promising players Mctominay and Perreira? Well we know the answer to the latter question given the manager in the dugout.

Well early days yet but Fred’s importance has been called to question with him being dropped from the team for their recent visit to Burnley.

If you didn’t know the turmoil that has engulfed AC Milan you can read a synopsis here. Most of the issues are fundamentally hard to redress and financially related so it boggles the mind why they would commit themselves to these transfers in a year’s time. Some reports describe an “obligation” rather than an option to buy the pair but regardless the moves still cast the scent of garbage juice in the short term.

Higuain turns 31 in December and would surely be well past his peak so huge question marks exist on whether he helps Milan return to the champions league. His return of 16 goals last season for a dominant Juventus side looks to be his upside for this season. That won’t be enough.

For his part Bakoyoko had been exiled by Chelsea due to a lack of technical and tactical ability. So why would he be brought to a less physical league renowned for its “tactical” pace? It only took one game for the manager to highlight the defects in his game openly to the media.

The good news here – as our list gets smaller clubs are learning which is great for all fans.

Our central aim is to provide as wide a perspective on the issues to either confirm or invalidate common thought. We value facts and context, carving each issue to the bone so everyone can reach their own conclusions on players/teams/leagues with clear, and complete information.